October is Food Security Month

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October 2015 is Food Security month, a thematic month of the European Year for Development. The month feature a wide range of thematic face-to-face events and the launch of new videos, case studies and stories online on the EU’s work on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture. Each week will have a specific regional and thematic focus with the final week coinciding with the Sahel and West Africa Week.

Events and resources for a professional audience are posted on the ROSA network, the online network on food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture on Capacity4Dev. The forthcoming issue of the newsletter of the network, called ROSA News, also to be published during this month, will focus on the position of food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), featuring an interview with Gerda Verburg, Chair of the Committee on Global Food Security (CFS). Activities targeted that the general public will take place on the European Year for Development website which is also accessible in French.

Food security has been chosen as one of the monthly themes of the European Year of development because it remains one of most compelling global challenges, both globally and in West Africa and the Sahel. Food security is about having access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for an active and healthy life. Worldwide, one person in nine goes hungry every day while, according to a recent FAO report[i], one in five goes hungry in sub-Saharan Africa. In the 1990-2016 period, West Africa has made significant achievements in food security, reducing the proportion of hungry people by 60% thus achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target on halving the proportion of people suffering from hunger.

A new short animated film, Developing agriculture to end hunger,shows how the EU is working to end hunger by supporting partner country's governments and people to produce more food while challenging inequalities in a world in which 1/8 people do not have enough to eat. The EU is battling hunger by supporting sustainable agriculture and fisheries in 60 countries, aiming to improve food and nutrition security with planned spending of more €8 billion in the 2014-2020 period.